25 years after Kishore Kumar's death, the legend lives on

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Last Updated: Sat, Oct 13, 2012 05:41 hrs

"Chalte chalte mere ye geet yaad rakhna, kabh alvida na kehna". True to the spirit of the song, fans of the inimitable Kishore Kumar still remembers him and he lives on in their hearts even 25 years after his death. The legend died Oct 13, 1987.

One can understand the frenzy about Kishore Kumar by the fact that he is the most sought after singer on radio channels, his songs gets millions of hits on YouTube and music lovers keep downloading them too.

Popular RJ Sayema, who hosts "Purani Jeans" on Radio Mirchi, says that most of the request she receives are for Kishore Kumar songs.

" 'Purani Jeans' is a very Kishore-heavy show and is most popular among the age group of 12-19-year-olds," she told IANS.

"There is no dearth of Kishore Kumar fans. Most of the requests are for Kishore Kumar songs - be it on mails, Facebook or Twitter or on the telephone. They come each single day without a miss," she added.

"His songs contain a timeless charm which continue to enthrall millions ever since the time they first released. This resonates with 92.7 BIG FM Delhi's philosophy of playing 'Hit The Hit Rahenge' songs. It is impossible to put a number to it, but the popularity of Kishore Kumar's music has ensured that most of his songs are played on the station with innumerable requests coming in specially for his evergreen romantic songs," said Manav Dhanda, Network Programming Head, 92.7 BIG FM.

The singer who won many Filmfare awards for his songs like "Roop tera mastana", "Pag ghoongru bandh" and "Hume aur jeene ki" is very much with us through his talent and art, says Pakistani singer composer Adnan Sami.

"As an artist if I have to say then all, I will say is that artists never die and everything that they have left behind in the form of their beautiful art is amazing," Adnan told IANS.

"The thing is that he has sung so many songs and still there are so many things to discover. He is alive through his work. We have all the reasons to celebrate his existence in our lives," he added.

With the growing exposure of Internet the youth easily access his songs and popular numbers like "Zindagi ek safar", "Gaadi bula rahi" and "O majhi re" have crossed over a billion hits on Youtube.

However, fans between the age group of 30-50 years still buy CDs and DVDs of his old melodies.

"The younger generation now prefers to download the songs from the Internet and the sales of CD is 10 percent. Age group between 30-40 come to by the Cds and DVDs," Kishore a shopkeeper said Rythem and Blues said.

Kishore-da's last song was recently bought by musical theatre group Kingdom Of Dreams, which was said to the song he had recorded three days before dying in 1987, and used it in their play "Jhumroo".